Fox Television Service
Fox Television Service (FOX) is an American commercial broadcast television network that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Turner Entertainment Co. The network is headquartered on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, with additional major offices and production facilities at Fox Television Studios in Los Angeles and in Manhattan. Launched on September 7, 1983 as a competitor to the Big Three television networks, ABC, NBC and CBS, FOX went on to become the most successful attempt at a fourth television network. It was the highest-rated broadcast network in the 18–49 demographic from 2000 to 2013, and was the most-watched American television network in total viewership from 2005 to 2011. History Origins Paramount had been involved in television production as early as the 1940s, producing several syndicated programs during this era. In 1949, the studio launched the Paramount Television Network, which distributed programs to an ad-hoc network of stations across the United States. The network effort would fail after a few years, but following its acquisition of Desilu Productions in 1967, Paramount continued to produce television series (such as Mission: Impossible) for the three major broadcast television networks (NBC, CBS and ABC). In 1974, Barry Diller started his tenure as the Chairman and of Paramount Pictures Corporation. With Diller at the helm, the studio produced hit television programs such as Laverne & Shirley (1976), Taxi (1978), and Cheers (1982). With his television background, Diller kept pitching an idea of his to the board: a fourth commercial network. In 1976, Paramount purchased the Hughes Television Network, including its satellite time in planning for the network (then known as Paramount Television Service.) They also hired Rich Frank of KCOP-TV and a member of the Operation Prime Time steering committee. Plans relating to the proposed launch were first announced on June 17, 1977. Set to launch in April 1978, its programming would have initially consisted of only one night a week. Thirty "Movies of the Week" would have followed Star Trek: Phase II on Saturday nights. PTVS was delayed until the 1978-1979 season due to cautious advertisers.In addition,the network seemed geared towards horror movies and shows as suggested by the dark and ominous logo. Despite best efforts, the board, and studio chief Charles Bluhdorn, passed on the network, as Bluhdorn worried that PTVS would lose too much money, as well as the small amount of independent stations in the country. Six months before the launch, Paramount canceled the network before PTVS was set to debut. Ultimately, Star Trek: Phase II was transformed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Origins 20th Century Fox had been involved in television production as early as the 1950s, producing several syndicated programs during this era. In November 1956, the studio purchased a 50% interest in the NTA Film Network, an early syndicator of films and television programs. Following the demise of the DuMont Television Network in August of that year after it became mired in severe financial problems, NTA was launched as a new "fourth network". 20th Century Fox would also produce original content for the NTA network. The film network effort would fail after a few years, but 20th Century Fox continued to dabble in television through its production arm, TCF Television Productions, producing series (such as Perry Mason) for the three major broadcast television networks (ABC, NBC and CBS). 1980s: Establishment of the network Foundations The Fox network's foundations were laid in March 1979 through Turner's $80 million purchase of TCF Holdings, the parent company of the bankrupt 20th Century Fox film studio. In 1981, Turner attempted to purchase CBS, but lost the bid. Since his attempt of buying an over-the-air network failed, Turner decide to create one of his own, a fourth television network (as pitched by newly-hired Chief Executive Officer of 20th Century Fox Barry Diller). In January 1982, Turner agreed to pay $2.1 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. cities from the John Kluge-run broadcasting company Metromedia: WNEW-TV (channel 5) in New York City, WTTG (channel 5) in Washington, D.C., KTTV (channel 11) in Los Angeles, KRIV (channel 26) in Houston, WFLD-TV (channel 32) in Chicago and former ABC affiliate WCVB-TV (channel 5) in Boston. Beginning of the network In August 1982, Turner announced its intentions to form a fourth television network that would compete with ABC, CBS and NBC. The plans were to use the combination of the Fox studios and the former Metromedia stations to both produce and distribute programming. Organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles. The purchase of the Metromedia stations was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in January 1983. These first five additional stations, then broadcasting to a combined reach of 22% of the nation's households, became part of the Turner Broadcasting System group. Turner's WTBS-TV (channel 17) in Atlanta was also confirmed as a Fox affiliate. Turner announced it would allow the Superstation WTBS feed to nationally distribute Fox's late night and prime time, and by 1987, children's programming, in order to make the network available to areas of the United States that did not initially have a local affiliate. With the exception of WTBS-TV (which has since reverted to independent status,) all of the original owned-and-operated stations ("O&Os") are still part of Fox today. Like the core O&O group, Fox's affiliate body initially consisted of independent stations (a few of which had maintained affiliations with ABC, NBC, CBS and/or DuMont earlier in their existences). The local charter affiliate was, in most cases, that market's top-rated independent; however, Fox opted to affiliate with a second-tier independent station in markets where a more established independent declined the affiliation (such as Denver, Phoenix and St. Louis). Largely because of both these factors, Fox – in a situation very similar to what DuMont had experienced four decades before – had little choice but to affiliate with UHF stations in all except a few (mainly larger) markets where the network gained clearance. Fox Television Service launched at 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on September 7, 1983. Its inaugural program was a late-night music video program, Late Night Video, which was hosted by . It was launched as an attempt to capitalize on the emerging popularity of music videos as seen on The Music Channel's Video Concert Hall. Unlike other music video programs such as ABC's Night Tracks and NBC's Friday Night Videos which aired only once a week, Late Night Video aired five nights a week. The network expanded its programming into prime time on January 7, 1984, inaugurating its Saturday night lineup with the premieres of sitcoms Domestic Life and Noah's Arcade. Fox added teen soap opera Liberty Heights ''the following week. On July 7, the network added comedies ''A Girl and Two Guys ''and ''Brothers to its Saturday night lineup, moving Liberty Heights to the inaugural Sunday schedule the following night, which saw the premiere of The Jerk, which began with a two-hour pilot movie event as a sequel to the 1979 film of the same name. Three other series were added to the Sunday lineup over the next two weeks: comedies Mr. President and Karen's Song and horror anthology series Freak Factor. Both Karen's Song and The Jerk were canceled by the start of the 1984–85 television season, the network's first fall launch, and were replaced by sitcoms It's Your Move and Women in Prison. Although it had modest successes in Domestic Life, A Girl and Two Guys and It's Your Move, several affiliates were disappointed with Fox's largely underperforming programming lineup during the network's first three years; KMSP-TV (channel 9) in Minneapolis-St. Paul and KPTV (channel 12) in Portland, Oregon, both owned at the time by Chris-Craft Television, disaffiliated from Fox in 1985 (with KITN (channel 29, now WFTC) and KPDX (channel 49) respectively replacing those stations as Fox affiliates), citing that the network's weaker program offerings were hampering viewership of their stronger syndicated slate. 1986-99: Rise into mainstream success and beginnings of rivalry with the Big Three The network added a third night of programming, on Fridays, at the start of the 1986–87 television season, a season that heralded the start of a turnaround for Fox. The inaugural lineup included freshman comedies The Tracey Ullman Show and Running Wild, and war drama The Dirty Dozen (based on the 1967 film of the same name). Both The Tracey Ullman Show and Running Wild would help Fox outperform the "Big Three" networks in the 8:00 p.m. hour, with the former ranking at a two-way tie for 29th place in the Nielsen ratings, becoming a breakout hit and was the first Fox series to break the Top 30, and would later spawn the longest-running sitcom and animated series in American television history, The Simpsons, which was spun-off in 1989 and would break the record of its parent show when the series ranked 23rd place, making it the first Fox series to crack the Top 25.) That year, Fox also first introduced the crime-focused magazine program America's Most Wanted (which debuted as a half-hour series before expanding to an hour and moving to Fridays for the 1990–91 season). Debuting in March 1987 was Married... with Children, which broke ground from other family sitcoms of the period as it centered on a dysfunctional lower-middle-class family, whose patriarch often openly loathed his failures and being saddled with a wife and two children; the series saw viewer interest substantially increase beginning in its third season after, in an ironic twist, Michigan homemaker Terry Rakolta lodged a boycott to force Fox to cancel the series after objecting to risque humor and sexual content featured in a 1989 episode. Married...‍ 's newfound success led it to become one of the network's longest-running live-action sitcoms. This was the first time since the 1950's that a fourth network has had two shows in the top 30. Fox also entered the late-night talk show arena in July 1987 with Late Shift with Arsenio Hall (originally a 5-night trial program but was quickly made into an official series due to the cancellation of the low-rated The Wilton North Report, which debuted a month earlier), which became a solid competitor to ABC's The Late Show Starring Johnny Carson and NBC's The Tonight Show with David Brenner. Fox expanded its late night lineup to Saturday nights October 1989 with the debut of In Living Color. The sketch comedy series created many memorable characters and launched the careers of future movie stars Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, Damon Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans and Jennifer Lopez (the latter of whom was a member of the show's dance troupe, the "Fly Girls"). The series also gained international prominence after Fox aired a special live episode in January 1990 as an alternative to the halftime show during Super Bowl XXIV, which was broadcast on CBS, marking the start of Fox's rivalry with the "Big Three" networks while popularizing the counterprogramming strategy against the Super Bowl telecast. In Living Color was cancelled in 1995 alongside Latin-centric sketch comedy House of Buggin' (which debuted in October 1994) as both series would merge into a single program later that year titled House of Color, which would become a solid competitor to NBC's Saturday Night Live and was one of its most successful shows. Fox survived where DuMont and other attempts to start a fourth network had failed because it programmed just under the number of hours defined by the FCC to legally be considered a network. This allowed Fox to make revenue in ways forbidden to the established networks (for instance, it did not have to adhere to the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules that were in effect at the time), since during its first years it was considered to be merely a large group of stations. By comparison, DuMont was saddled by numerous regulatory barriers that hampered its potential to grow, most notably a ban on acquiring additional stations – during an era when the FCC had much tighter ownership limits for television stations (limiting broadcasters to a maximum of five stations nationwide) than it did when FOX launched – since its minority owner, 20th Century Fox owned two television stations (one of which had already disaffiliated from the network). Combined with the three television stations owned by network parent DuMont Laboratories, this put DuMont at the legal limit at the time. In addition, Murdoch was more than willing to open his wallet to get and keep programming and talent. DuMont, in contrast, operated on a shoestring budget and was unable to keep the programs and stars it had. Most of the other startup networks that launched in later years (such as The WB and UVN) followed Fox's model as well. Clarke Ingram, who maintains a memorial website to the failed DuMont Television Network, has suggested that Fox is a revival or at least a linear descendant of DuMont, since Metromedia (originally known as Metropolitan Broadcasting at its founding) was spun off from DuMont and that company's television stations formed the nucleus of the Fox network. WNYW (originally known as WABD) and WTTG were two of the three original owned-and-operated stations of the DuMont network, and Fox remains based out of a facility in Manhattan which was formerly the base of DuMont's operations, the DuMont Tele-Centre, the current day Fox Television Center. Although Fox was growing rapidly as a network and had established itself as a presence, it was still not considered a major competitor to the established "Big Three" broadcast networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. From its launch, Fox had the advantage of offering programs intended to appeal toward a younger demographic – adults between 18 and 49 years of age – and were edgier in content, whereas some programs that were carried by the "Big Three" networks attracted an older-skewing audience. Until the late 1980s, when Fox expanded its programming to additional nights and outside of prime time, most Fox stations were still essentially formatted as independent stations – filling their schedules with mainly first-run and acquired programming, and during prime time, running either syndicated programs or more commonly, movies on nights when the network did not provide programming. Few Fox stations carried local newscasts during its early years, unlike the owned-and-operated stations and affiliates of its established rivals, with those that did mainly being based in larger markets (including some of the network's O&Os) and carried only newscasts following the network's prime time lineup. Luring the NFL and affiliation switches Fox would become a viable competitor to the "Big Three" when the network lured the partial broadcast television rights to the National Football League away from CBS. On December 18, 1990, Fox signed a contract with the NFL to televise regular season and playoff games from the National Football Conference (which had been airing its games on CBS since 1955, fifteen years before the formation of the NFC and the American Football Conference through the merger of the American Football League and the NFL), starting with the 1991 season. The initial four-year contract, which Fox bid $870 million to obtain (considerably more than the $290 million that CBS reportedly offered to retain the conference rights), also included the exclusive U.S. television rights to Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994. The network also lured Pat Summerall, John Madden, Dick Stockton, Matt Millen, James Brown and Terry Bradshaw (as well as many behind-the-scenes production personnel) from CBS Sports to staff its NFL coverage. Shortly afterward, Turner began striking affiliation deals with, and later purchased, more television station groups. On May 23, 1991, Fox agreed to purchase a 20% stake in SCI Television. As a result of Fox acquiring a 20% minority interest in the company, SCI signed an agreement to switch the affiliations of twelve stations (eight CBS affiliates, three ABC affiliates – two of which were subsequently placed in a blind trust and then sold directly to Fox due to conflicts with FCC ownership rules – and one NBC affiliate) that it had either already owned outright or was in the process of acquiring from Citicasters and Argyle Communications at the time to Fox starting in September 1991 and continuing as existing affiliation contracts with their existing major network partners expired. That summer, NWF Broadcasting, a joint venture between Fox and New World Entertainment that was founded in February 1991, purchased four stations from Burnham Broadcasting (three NBC affiliates and one ABC affiliate); through a separate agreement, those stations would also switch to Fox between September 1992 and January 1993 as existing affiliation agreements lapsed. These two deals were not the first instances in which a longtime "Big Three" station affiliated with Fox: the network scored its first major coup when it moved its Miami affiliation from charter affiliate WCIX (channel 6; which became a CBS owned-and-operated station, now WFOR-TV on channel 4) to NBC affiliate WSVN(channel 7) in January 1989, the result of a three-station affiliation swap spurred by NBC's purchase of longtime CBS affiliate WTVJ (channel 4, now on channel 6). Through the expansion of its news programming and a refocused emphasis on crime stories and sensationalistic reporting under news director Joel Cheatwood, that switch helped ascend the perennial third-place WSVN into a strong competitor in the Miami market. The NFC contract, in fact, was the impetus for the affiliation deal with SCI and NWF Broadcasting's purchase of the Burnham stations, as Fox sought to improve local coverage of its new NFL package by aligning the network with stations that had more established histories and advertiser value than its charter affiliates. The deals spurred a series of affiliation realignments between all four U.S. television networks involving individual stations and various broadcasting groups – such as those between CBS and Group W (whose corporate parent later bought the network in August 1995), and ABC and the E. W. Scripps Company (which owned several Fox affiliates that switched to either ABC or NBC as a result of the SCI deal) – affecting 30 television markets between September 1991 and September 1993. The two deals also had the side benefit of increasing local news programming on the new Fox affiliates, mirroring the programming format adopted by WSVN upon that station's switch to the network (as well as expanding the number of news-producing stations in Fox's portfolio beyond mainly charter stations in certain large and mid-sized markets). With significant market share for the first time ever and the rights to the NFL, Fox firmly established itself as the nation's fourth major network. Fox Television Stations would acquire SCI outright on July 17, 1993 in a $2.48 billion stock purchase, making the latter's twelve Fox affiliates owned-and-operated stations of the network; the deal was completed on January 22, 1994. These purchases, for a time, made Fox Television Stations the largest owner of television stations in the U.S. (a title that has since been assumed by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the network's largest affiliate groups). Programming As of 2015, Fox currently provides 19 hours of regularly scheduled network programming each week. The network provides fifteen hours of prime time programming to its owned-and-operated and affiliated stations on Monday through Saturdays from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. and Sundays from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. (all times Eastern and Pacific). An hour of late night programming is also offered on Saturdays from 11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, as part of the Animation Domination High-Def block (though scheduling for that hour varies depending on the market due to late local newscasts airing in the traditional 11:00/10:00 p.m. timeslot on some Fox stations). Weekend daytime programming consists of the paid programming block Weekend Marketplace (airing Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., although the block is not carried by all affiliates and in some areas, is offered to another station in the market), and the hour-long Sunday morning political discussion show – and the network's only regular national news program –the CNN-produced Fox'' News Sunday with Chris Wallace'' (airing from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific, although the timeslot also varies by market due to local news or public affairsprogramming). Sports programming is also provided; usually on weekends (albeit not every weekend year-round), and most commonly airing between 11:00 and 4:00 or as late as 8:00 p.m. on Sundays (often airing for longer hours during football season, slightly less during NASCAR season); 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. (during baseball and college football season) or as early as 12:00 p.m. (during college basketball season) on Saturday afternoons; and during prime time on certain Saturday evenings. The Saturday prime time block – if any sports programming is scheduled for a particular week on that night – currently varies between occasional WCW specials, Major League Baseball or NASCAR coverage in the late winter and early spring/summer, and college football coverage during the fall. Most of the network's prime time programming is produced by a production company owned by Fox's corporate parent Turner Entertanment Co., usually 20th Century Fox Television or Fox Television Stations. Children's programming Fox began airing children's programming on September 5, 1987 with its Saturday morning schedule; the block was branded as the Fox Children's Network in 1989, then the Fox Kids Network in 1991, and then to simply Fox Kids in 1996. It expanded to weekday afternoons in 1990. Programming within the Fox Kids block consisted mainly of animated series, although it also featured some live-action series as part of the lineup. Shows featured in the block included Little Sammy, Bobby's World, X-Men, The Tick, Spider Man and Goosebumps; it also aired select shows from Warner Bros. Animation including the popular animated series The Goonies, Tiny Toon Adventures and Taz-Mania (Warner Bros. pulled Tiny Toon Adventures and Taz-Mania from the Fox Kids lineup in September 1992, moving both shows, as well as The Goonies – which had already ended its run – to the newly launched Warner Bros. Kids Network rebranded Kids' WB block on WBN rebranded The WB). Fox Kids' most successful series, however, was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (from eventual sister company and Fox Kids co-parent Saban Entertainment), which debuted in 1993 and became the block's flagship program. Fox discontinued the Fox Kids block after 21-plus years on December 27, 2008, due to the network's inability to fulfill a promise guaranteeing clearance on 90% of its stations and get other stations to carry the block in certain markets where a Fox station declined it (an issue that plagued Fox's children's program block since the start of its affiliation deal with SCI Television). Fox earlier announced on November 23, that it would no longer carry children's programming in the time period citing stiff competition from cable channels aimed at the demographic; the network instead turned two of the four vacant Saturday morning hours over to its affiliates to allow them to air local newscasts or educational programs purchased from the syndication market, while it retained the remaining two hours to run a network-managed paid programming block, Weekend Marketplace, which debuted on January 3, 2009.